ChipMeNot - Case Study seamus

5-year-old bullmastiff Seamus died after developing a hemangio-sarcoma – a malignant form of cancer that can kill even humans in three to six months. According to the pathology report, the tumor appeared between his shoulder blades in 2009, and by September a "large mass" had grown with the potential to spread to his lungs, liver and spleen.

Seamus underwent emergency surgery resulting in the extraction of a 4-pound 3-ounce tumor. Four drains were required to remove fluid from the area in which the tumor had developed. The vet informed the dog's owner, Howard Gillis, that there had been two microchips embedded in Seamus – one presumably inserted by the dog's breeder when Seamus was only 9 months old. The chips were both located in and around the tumor.

In just three months, the cancer returned. Seamus, a once energetic dog, struggled to walk.

Gillis explained that he "got the microchip because I didn't want him stolen. I thought I was doing right. There were never any warnings about what a microchip could do, but I saw it first-hand. That cancer was something I could see growing every day, and I could see it taking his life … It just ate him up."